The Beloved (pbuh) and being in the service of others

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيموالحمدللهرب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلينIn the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

Being in the service of others

In today’s world, the primary being that we serve is ourself. Of course many can disagree, and say we serve Allah, we pray, fast, give charity and so on. But in order to truly serve Allah, we need to be in the service of people too even if it causes us a little inconvenience.

This is closely linked with humility. We can all believe that we are not arrogant, but one way to test our humility is whether we are ready to do things for others.

Our Prophet (pbuh), although he did not need to be, always worked with others and was in their service if they ever needed anything. When the Companions (ra) were building Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi in Medina, the Prophet (pbuh) was working alongside them, even though they would try to stop him because they did want to impose any hardship on him. Still, he worked with them on the same level.

The Prophet’s (pbuh) advice to a man named Abi Barza when he asked: “O Messenger of Allah, teach me something that Allah will benefit me with”. The Prophet (pbuh) replied “Look at whatever causes trouble/disturbs people, and remove it from their path“

As one Sheikh has said, in Islam, helping others and solving their problems is not only an important virtue, it is also a profound act of worship, and thus something that is beloved to Allah. The Prophet (pbuh) said “A man was going on his way when he saw brambles in the path. He moved these out of the way. Allah so esteemed his virtuous act that He granted him forgiveness.” (Muslim)The prayers and other ritual acts of worship that we perform are fruitless unless we engage in the service of humanity.”As we all know, charity starts at home. Aisha (ra) was asked about how the Prophet (pbuh) was in the house, and she responded that he was occupied with them in the household work. (Bukhari)She also said “he was one of the human beings [who did not live like a boss or lord at home]. He would check for lice on his clothes. He would milk the goat, do other household works as well as his personal work“. (Tirmidhi)

In another narration of the same hadith, it is related that the Prophet (pbuh) said he saw a man strolling in Paradise. The deed that he had performed was to cut down and removed a tree from the path that was causing trouble to passers by.

Commenting on this hadith, Imam an-Nawawi says that there is reward for any virtuous deed that provides help to others. Other scholars explain that the main lesson to draw from this hadîth is the importance of easing the distress of others in any way: “

The Companions (ra) learned from this. When Abu Bakr (ra) was caliph, there was an old woman who lived on the outskirts of medina. Umar (ra) decided that he would go to her every night to attend to her needs, but when arriving, would find that someone had beaten him to it. The next day he went earlier, and found that someone had beaten him to it again. This went on for a few days, until Umar (ra) thought that he had to know who this virtuous person was. He went very early and waited in hiding outside the woman’s house. He finally saw who the person was; it was Abu Bakr (ra), and this was when he was Caliph!

This goes back to remembering that we are an Ummah, and there is a duty upon us. Our prayers, fasts and so on should provide us with the remembrance of Allah and our purpose, as well as a check on our intentions, which should lead to us spreading the good to other. As we all know, actions speak louder than words, so if we tell others that Islam is perfect then we should show it in our actions 🙂

Simple SunnaThe Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, “It is my tradition that a man receives his guest at his door and sees him off at the door.” (Ibn Majah, Baihaqi)